


Ground Control

by beansandchill



Series: Earthbound [1]
Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: M/M, Strap in it's going to be an adventure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-23 23:23:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12518944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beansandchill/pseuds/beansandchill
Summary: “Wander,” Sylvia placed a hand on the nomad’s shoulder, and looked him in the eyes, “There’s gonna be a fight…and I know you’re not up for that kind of thing, so I want you to stay behind, okay?”





	Ground Control

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfiction I've written in about 7 years. Don't be afraid to leave constructive criticism, or heck, even let me know what things you like about it!
> 
> Update Dec. 6, 2017
> 
> As an added note, I AM working on chapter 2. I'm just kind of a perfectionist and I take a while for things. I appreciate all of you guys for your patience, and I promise to have it up very soon!

The walls of Dominator’s ship glowed bright yellow as Wander peered through the gate from within the air duct he was hiding in. Down below, he could see Dominator bots roaming the ground freely, searching the area for the other intruders on the ship. The other intruders being his best buddies Sylvia, Lord Hater, and Commander Peepers, but not himself, as he remained tucked away. He leaned against the gate, peering closer at the bots as they scanned the area aimlessly. Wherever his friends were, they hadn’t been caught yet. This much he was thankful for.  
;{_________________};  
“Wander,” Sylvia placed a hand on the nomad’s shoulder, and looked him in the eyes, “There’s gonna be a fight…and I know you’re not up for that kind of thing, so I want you to stay behind, okay?”  
At that moment in time, they were on their “secret planet,” one of the few planets left out of Dominator’s clutches. Sylvia chose it not only as a safe location to discuss their plans, but as a place for Wander to stay while the three of them embarked on their journey. There were plenty of people on that planet now, whose planets had long been destroyed, and they all could use Wander’s endless fountain of positivity and hope as a beacon to find theirs once again. Hater and Peepers chattered amongst themselves behind Sylvia, unintelligible, but more than likely having something to do with battle strategies.  
Wander nodded. “Alright, Syl. If y’think I shouldn’t go, then I won’t.” He looked away from Sylvia, and then back up at her, his eyes widening in worry, “But please promise m’you’ll be safe.”  
The skull ship hummed lowly in the distance, somehow indicating the calm before the storm. This would be Sylvia and Wander’s first time being separated like this, but they both knew it was for the best. Though Wander knew about Sylvia’s past (with her having been a bounty hunter before), he also knew she held back some of her strength to spare him the trouble of having to see all she was capable of.  
She smiled warmly at him, and lifted her hand from his shoulder. “Of course I will, buddy.” Her tone changed from warm to brusk as she turned toward Hater and Peepers, “Let’s go, guys. We’ve got Dominator butt to kick!”  
Wander’s smile didn’t fade as the three of them ran off, leaving him behind on the “secret planet” with locals from places that no longer existed. As soon as the ship was out of sight, his smile faltered, being taken over by worry and a slight hint of regret. He really wanted to go, even though he wasn’t much of a fighter, but he was able to empathise with how they felt. Perhaps this was for the better…  
;{_________________};  
Wander flinched at the sudden sounds of crashing coming from somewhere in the hall filled with Dominator bots. He leaned more onto the gate, as he attempted to gain better perception on the commotion. It was to no avail, however, he could feel the gate loosening under his grip, and he knew if he placed more weight on it, it would surely collapse from underneath him, ultimately exposing his hiding place.  
“Ya wanna piece of me?!” He’d recognised that voice anywhere. Sylvia’s heavyset steps became more pronounced as she got closer to his location. “Well, come and get some!” She screamed through the crowd of bots, Peepers riding her saddle, and Hater following closely behind, green sparks of electricity blasting from his gloved hands to the bots that surrounded them. The bots engaged their weapons and began charging them, getting ready to fire. Hater’s electric bolts shot out and began shorting out the weapons. Peepers hopped off Sylvia’s back and began firing at the bots’ guns with his own blaster.  
;{_________________};  
Wander walked back inside the shelter on the secret planet. A couple locals from another planet, long destroyed, approached him and asked, “What’re we gonna do now?”  
Wander looked around at all their faces. He was surrounded by people of different races, species, and origins, and yet, they were all in one place, searching for hope. Hope for their planets that had been demolished by Dominator’s hand. Wander stood in the doorway, choked up, and for the first time in a while, he felt completely clueless. What WERE they going to do? What was HE going to do? He wanted nothing more than to make everything okay—to just pull something out of his hat that would magically fix their planets, but even his hat has its limitations. The others began to approach him, all of them panicked and searching. Wander felt pity for these people, and he knew that by just standing around while his friends fought wasn’t the right thing to do.  
He cleared his throat and stood up straight. “I’m going t’go help fight Dominator!”  
Oh grop, what did he just say? He’s going to go help FIGHT Dominator?  
The group gasped. A woman standing in the back said, "But, Wander, you don’t…FIGHT.”  
Wander felt sweat begin to bead on the palms of his hands, but he cleared his head and continued to improvise. He thought of everyone surrounding him, and knew he’d have to break out of his own comfort zone if he wanted to make a difference. “I know I don’t, but I can’t just stand around while m’friends do!”  
“So you’re gonna fight for our planets and reclaim them?”  
Wander smiled nervously. “’m gonna try!”  
He had no idea how he was going to go about doing that though.  
;{_________________};  
Wander silently rooted for his friends on the side-lines from within the air duct he hid himself in. Below, Sylvia took a moment to catch her breath as Peepers jumped up next to Hater exclaiming, “Sir, we did it! We’re getting close to Dominator!” Sylvia held out her hand, stopping Peepers where he stood.  
“We haven’t reached her YET. It’s too early to celebrate.” She squinted her eyes. “It seems a little TOO easy, don’t you think? There’s no way her bots were at their full power…”  
Peepers glanced toward Sylvia, “Do you think she’s…expecting us?”  
“I’m not sure,” Sylvia responded, “But whatever’s going to happen once we reach her control room, we have to be prepared for it.”  
“Well, I’m ready!” Hater screamed, his voice echoing through the halls.  
Wander couldn’t help but giggle at Hater’s outburst. Sylvia stopped dead in her tracks. “Did you guys hear that?”  
“Hear what?” Peepers asked.  
Sylvia, who stood right below the air duct, looked above into the vent. Wander moved out of the way as quickly as he could, but the gate collapsed from under his weight, and he came toppling down onto Sylvia’s head.  
“W-Wander?!” she screamed.  
“Heya, Syl!” Wander exclaimed back, his smile stretched from ear to ear as he bounced off of her, landing on his feet.  
“Wander…” Sylvia rested her head into her hand, “I thought I told you to stay back.”  
“I know ya did, Syl, but I couldn’t just sit back while m’friends risked their lives.”  
Sylvia sighed, “Look, Wander, I know you want to help, but—”  
“But you’re going to get in the way!” Peepers shouted.  
Wander’s smile faltered a bit, but it snapped back into position. Before he had the chance to speak, however, another voice rang through the hall. “What are YOU losers doing here?”  
“Grop, it’s Dominator,” Sylvia muttered.  
As Dominator’s footsteps grew closer, Sylvia placed a hand on Wander’s chest and pushed him back.  
“Syl, please, I wanna help.” Wander’s voice lacked his usual cheerfulness, and for that, Sylvia felt a slight twinge of guilt.  
“Look, buddy, I know you want to help, but you don’t fight, and I respect that. Sometimes, you HAFTA fight, and this is one of those times.” She looked back at him and smiled as warmly as she could muster.  
“I don’t know what you idiots still want,” Dominator stated, coming into view of the group, “I already destroyed this entire galaxy.”  
“We want revenge,” Sylvia declared confidently, “What you did was wrong, and that’s not going to go without paying a price for it.”  
Dominator reached to her side and pulled out a checkbook. “How much for the damages?” Sylvia glowered at her mocking tone.  
;{_________________};  
Wander walked out the door and looked out into the horizon. The sun was now beginning to set on the secret planet, mixing shades of orange, yellow, and red onto the greens of the lush vegetation. He turned around and stared back at the residents. Some were the last of their species, being the only ones whose lives were spared once their planets were destroyed, and others were large groups, even families with parents and children.  
All of them looked hopeful, and Wander felt the obligation to these people weighing heavily on his shoulders. He knew that his life wasn’t the only one he had to keep in mind now. This wasn’t like previous times when Lord Hater and his Watchdog army would conquer planets. They still kept the lives of the locals in mind, but Dominator took the lives of these people. The people that stood behind him had families and neighbours, some of which didn’t even make it to this secret planet. He knew that.  
He knew this was a much more serious matter now. He considered this might even be the last time he’d see them again like this. Perhaps this would be the last time he’d see the secret planet, or his best buddies. With all the colours surrounding him, their warmth and vividity, he felt sombre, but he did the only thing he could do. He pulled a container of Orbble Juice from his hat and blew into the wand, enveloping himself within a bubble, and making his way off into the sunset.  
;{_________________};

The firing of Peepers’ blaster set off the beginning of the fight. With his fingers tightly grasped around the trigger, he didn’t hesitate for a second, aiming straight at the villain’s head. Dominator dodged the attack in one swift movement. “Wow, you guys really aren’t messing around, huh?” She grinned hungrily, “Well, this’ll be FUN.” Giving no time for second thoughts, she sprinted toward the orange nomad and wrapped the entirety of her hand around his small torso, heaving him into the air and using him as a shield for the other attacks that came her way. Sylvia immediately stopped. Hater’s fists continued to glow with electricity, giving no mind to the fact that Wander was being used to fend off any hits she would take. As Hater fired, Sylvia lunged at him, tackling him to the ground, forcing his attack to ricochet off the wall and shoot straight into the eye of his second in command.  
Peepers screamed in agony, temporarily blinded by the attack. “WHAT IN GROP’S NAME ARE YOU DOING?!” Hater shoved Sylvia off, and charged his fists with another attack to be aimed at her.  
“She’s got Wander! We gotta save him first!”  
“UGHHHH, WHO CARES?!?!” Hater shrieked back at Sylvia, “This is our chance to defeat her, and you’re worried about that…SUNSHINE BANJO FACE?!”  
“Oh my grop, this is TOO funny!” Dominator’s enjoyment was prominent, “You guys are going to wind up fighting each other!” She laughed manically at the mayhem strewn before her. “I can’t believe what total IDIOTS you are!”  
Wander looked at his friends. Hater and Sylvia, both staring each other down, and Peepers, curled in a foetal position on the ground, clutching his eye with both his hands. This whole mishap was his fault, and he was beginning to realise that…but both his arms were still free, and so were his legs. He glanced at Dominator, her laughing distracting her from her surroundings, and he decided, it was now or never. Was he going to help his friends and the folks who had lost their planets, or was he going to allow himself to be held by Dominator doing nothing….and being helpless?  
He wasn’t a fighter—this much he knew.  
But he didn’t have to fight to help his friends. He slightly opened his mouth and leaned his head downward, pressing a wet, pink tongue against the skin on her arm.  
Dominator’s laughter turned to screeching as she looked down in horror at the small orange creature licking her arm.  
A small “blep” sound exited from his vocal cords as he moved his way upward, producing as much saliva as he could. Her arm tasted like burnt sweet, but didn’t have any distinctive flavours besides that.  
Her grip on him tightened, and she quickly flung him against one of the walls. He landed against it with a hard thud! and slid down onto the floor. “You little FREAK!”  
“Wander!” Sylvia cried out, and began to rush toward him, but Dominator reacted with more agility, encapsulating her in a brick of lava. Before any of the others were able to react, they too, were trapped. The villain advanced toward the nomad, looming over his small figure, a malicious grin plastered on her face.  
“I should’ve destroyed you when I got the chance!” she roared, “But I DIDN’T.” She reached out a hand and clutched tightly to his torso, pinning his hands against his sides, and lifting him above her head. Wander’s eyes screamed in protest, but his vocal cords tensed up at the very thought of saying anything. His eyes shot around the room. His friends were trapped, the folks on the secret planet were doomed, but what had haunted him the most, was that he had failed to help anyone. If anything, he was the one to blame.  
“You’re not destroying anyone!” Sylvia’s squirming through the hardened lava paid off, and she had found a weak spot within it, granting her the ability to break free, “Not if I can help it!” She wasn’t going to give the lava the opportunity to reform around her—she remembered times prior when she wasn’t fast enough to escape it, but she planned out her steps, and sprinted away from it just in time to escape the particles that threatened her.  
Dominator knew Sylvia to be much more of a threat than the furry vagabond whom she held in a deathly tight grip. She quickly dropped him and turned in Sylvia’s direction, forming ice crystals on her hands, in a similar manner to that of brass knuckles. The ice moved its way up, constructing sharp ice shards at the tips. Sylvia hadn’t been paying attention to Dominator’s hands as much as she was paying attention to the face she was about to punch in, but Wander, being on the floor beneath Dominator’s feet, had taken notice of the weapons on her knuckles and realised if Sylvia were to be hit by that, it would cause extensive amounts of damage. He knew if she became unable to fight, they would surely lose.  
He wasn’t about to join the battle. As much as he wanted to do something to help, his idea of helping was reforming past enemies and singing songs or giving out hugs. But with Sylvia drawing nearer to Dominator and Dominator lifting her arm in preparation of an attack, he knew there had to be something he could do besides try to make friends.  
Impulsively, he sprang to his feet and leapt into the air, propelling himself smack in the middle of the two of them. Sylvia’s fist collided into Wander’s stomach, shoving him backward into Dominator’s icy cold fist. The shards of the ice penetrated deep into his skin, and Dominator stared in satisfied confusion as she witnessed blood splattering out of his back and onto her hand. She was satisfied because blood was exactly what she had expected to see, but her confusion was the result of whose blood it was.  
Sylvia retracted her fist almost immediately, and Wander fell straight onto the floor. Blood practically poured from his back, pooling around him. Dominator took a quick moment to assess the damage before she stepped forward to launch another attack at Sylvia. With no time to focus on her best buddy, Sylvia dodged the attack and pumped her fist forward in the same movement, striking straight into Dominator’s face. The villain staggered backward, clutching her cheek, shocked that the attack hit.  
Meanwhile, Hater had charged the electricity in his fists, with the hope that enough power would grant him the ability to blast through the lava that encased him. He felt the lighting exit the tips of his fingers, the hardened lava began to melt from the heat of his own power. He wriggled himself free, charging his fists for another attack. “Prepare to die, Dominator!” he screamed, launching the attack her way.  
Dominator dodged the attack in an almost choreographed manner, without failing to take her gaze off of Sylvia. “You’re such a dweeb. You can’t just call attention to yourself when you try to sneak attack. They’re called ‘sneak attacks’ for a reason.”  
The fiercely determined look fell straight from Hater’s face, crashing to the ground like glass, shattering into pieces on the floor. He turned to his second in command, still trapped by the lava, for advice. Peepers rolled his eye. “She has a point, sir.”  
Wander weakly lifted himself from the floor, the wound in his back weakened him significantly, and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to walk. Using only his arms, he began dragging his body out of the way of the action, suppressing pained whimpers as he inched forward.  
“Wander! How’re you holdin’ up, buddy?” Sylvia asked, dodging an attack from Dominator.  
Wander managed to force his arm up and form a thumbs up with his hand. “…’m doin’ great,” he responded in almost a whisper.  
“Hater! Get him out of the way!” Sylvia shouted. She made the mistake of turning in his direction, opening herself to an icy attack from the villain. Ice crystals shot themselves into her arm, cutting it open, and flinging blood from the wounds.  
Sylvia didn’t cry out—instead, she pulled a bloodied shard from her arm and launched it at Dominator, aiming it between her eyebrows.  
Ignoring Sylvia’s request, Hater began charging his own attack. With Dominator’s back turned toward him, he would properly sneak up on her, and deliver the strongest attack he could muster. Dominator noticed the ice shard flying at her, and moved her head to the side. The crystal hit the wall behind her, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The villain grinned, but Sylvia merely took that as a challenge. “You’re not too shabby at fighting, are ya, Dom?” she asked, her mouth forming itself into a smirk.  
“Hmph, of course not,” Dominator responded confidently, “I destroyed this entire galaxy. I managed that on my own-“ A blast of bright green electricity cut her off, paralysing her. Sylvia took a step back, lest the stray bits of lightning head her way as well.  
“Hahahahaha!” Hater’s laugh was loud and confident, “I finally got you! I can sneak attack, you see?!” Electricity poured from his hands like waterfalls, and Dominator’s body began lifting up from the sheer power of the attack.  
In her paralysis, Dominator managed a smile. She began channelling the energy being blasted at her toward her own fingertips. “Yes!” she shouted. Her gaze shifted to the furry orange nomad crawling his way across the room. “I’m going to destroy you!”  
Peepers immediately noticed the electricity wasn’t harming her. “Sir! You’ve got to stop! She’s going to-“  
Peepers’ warning was abruptly cut off by an electrical current blasting out of Dominator’s hands and directly in Wander’s direction. It struck him in the back, and his muscles suddenly tensed, paralysing him in his position on the floor. His vocal cords clenched up, leaving him unable to even scream. Dominator’s laughter was the only audible thing to him, and it quickly became drowned out by the buzzing of electrical currents surrounding him.  
“HATER!!” Sylvia screamed, “STOP SHOOTING AT HER!!” She sprinted toward him, tackling him to the ground. But even when his attack was cut off, Dominator continued her reign on Wander. She channelled the energy further, strengthening the blast, and the sheer force from it became so strong that it soon blasted Wander through the wall of her ship and out into space. Wander’s body screamed for relief, and it was only achieved once he reached so far into space that he lost the connection with the lightning.  
As soon as he was able to open his eyes, he looked back at the ship as it became smaller and smaller. He quickly reached into his hat, grabbing a bottle of Orbble Juice and used whatever strength he could muster into blowing a bubble to protect himself from the lack of air outside the ship. He collapsed into the bubble and laid himself down. He knew he was flying too far from his friends, but he was so exhausted. Instead, he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.


End file.
